There is a wide variety of economic development projects in Crimea in the spheres of infrastructure, tourism, agriculture, waste management and water desalination, in which French companies may be interested to participate, a member of a delegation of French lawmakers, who is currently visiting Crimea, told Nicolas Dhuicq.

A delegation of 11 French lawmakers headed by former Minister of Transport and current member of the French parliament Foreign Affairs Committee Thierry Mariani begins on Friday its three-day visit to Crimea.

“I have read document called concept of development of Crimea on how to attract investments, develop and refresh Crimean infrastructures and came to a conclusion that French companies may be interested to take part in various economic development projects of Crimea. Five fields where the French businesses may be interested to take part are infrastructure, tourism, agriculture, waste management and water desalination projects,” Nicolas Dhuicq said.

The lawmaker recalled his last year trip to Crimea peninsula, pointing at the poor state of roads. He believes that two French major industrial and construction companies such as Bouygues and VINCI can be a good match for these infrastructure projects.

Nicolas Dhuicq pointed that in regard to tourism that remains the most relevant way to attract money and to develop Crimea, “the Black Sea peninsula needs to develop high quality, luxury tourism. It will lead to restriction on urbanism to preserve the sea shores.”

The lawmaker also said that another field for cooperation could be a construction of desalination plants in Crimea to solve peninsula’s water supply problem.

“These are topics I would like to have more information about and I believe this trip is a good opportunity to discuss ways to boost economic cooperation between the countries,” the lawmaker concluded.

The Crimean peninsula seceded from Ukraine and became part of Russia after more than 96 percent of local voters supported the move in a referendum in March 2014. The Western countries, including the EU members, have not recognized the legitimacy of the reunification, and imposed several rounds of sanctions against Russia. Moscow has repeatedly stated that the move fully complied with international law.